TeckNet iEP380 Power Bank Review

This article has been archived and is no longer being updated. It may be out of date or otherwise inaccurate due to the passage of time.

The TechNet iEP380 Power Bank is a small external battery designed to provide charge to two devices simultaneously. It comes with seven of adapters which allows it to charge most phones and tablets on the market, except notably the lightning connector used by the iPhone 5 and the most up to date iPad. The Power Bank has a 5000mAh rechargeable battery at its core which it’s claimed is enough for two and a half full charges of an iPhone 4 battery and can output at 500mA or 1A.

The battery comes uncharged with 1 USB to micro USB cable and 7 types of connectors to cover almost every type of phone. It does not include a lightning connector but as the output from the battery is as USB should you need this or a non-standard cable then you can just use your normal cable.

This also comes with a small black velvet bag that will hold the battery, a short USB cable and a couple of connectors. The USB cable is a Micro USB which means to charge you either need to use mini-USB adaptor to charge.

The unit is simple to charge. Plug it in to either a powered USB hub or a ‘wall wart’ charger and the three lights will flash, 1,2,3 until it is fully charged. It will then show three constant lights and stop charging. To use connect the cables and press and hold the button for a second. The lights will come on to show level of charge and the phone will begin charging.

Features

The TeckNet iEP380 is at its base a very large battery. Modern smart phones have larger and larger internal batteries with every generation but the demands on them – bigger screens, multiple radios and the like get larger as well. Add the fact that many phones now have fixed batteries, such as the Nexus 4 and the HTC One and its a fairly frequent occurrence to run out of charge by mid afternoon.

This device allows you to charge, or charge and use your laptop or tablet on the go.

Accessibility

It is accessible for anyone with a moderate visual impairment as the LED level indicators are quite bright, but if you are blind there is no tactile or audible feedback.

Audio accessibility

There is no audio component to this device, good or bad.

Physical Accessibility

There are two physical aspects to this battery. Plugging in the cables and the button. Both are of the level of difficulty that you would expect although the button requires holding down for a couple of seconds to switch off the battery rather than a simple press and release. Overall it is quite physically accessible

Cognitive Accessibility

The device is easy to setup and easy to grasp it works. Its three ports are clearly labelled and as they are of different USB types would be extremely difficult to plug incorrectly.

7 replaceable heads all from miniUSB. These include a 30 pin (old style Apple), a Nokia (N70, N71 etc), a PSP, a Micro USB, a NDSL, a Samsung M300 and a Samsung SAM P1000.

A small manual

Verdict

The idea of an external battery pack when most of our gadgets have non-removable batteries is one that is gaining ground and the TechNet iEP380 is a very good choice of one. The range of tips, ability to charge the battery from USB, small size and dual output make it an excellent companion to your tablet and smart phone. I’ve been using it for the last couple of months and by this point don’t know how I got through a long day without it. This device has a space in anyone’s bag.

This article was first published on 13 August 2013 and is no longer being updated. Information may be out of date or otherwise inaccurate due to the passage of time.